


the lightning captive in her teeth

by MissSpookyEyes, verbose_vespertine



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, F/F, Meet-Cute, flirting with blasters, groin-punching, hunting of bounty, much handling of pistols, murder wives-to-be, no Weequays were harmed in the making of this fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24613969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissSpookyEyes/pseuds/MissSpookyEyes, https://archiveofourown.org/users/verbose_vespertine/pseuds/verbose_vespertine
Summary: Orcodaa Vadesh, better known as Coda, came to Hutta to hide.Indirae Jexqzk, never willingly known as Indy, came to Hutta to join the Great Hunt.When an unexpected act of generosity brings them together, it proves surprisingly difficult to disentangle themselves again. Are they bound for glory, bound together or just bound to get into a lot of trouble?(A take on the Bounty Hunter storyline)
Relationships: Female Bounty Hunter/Female Bounty Hunter
Kudos: 7





	the lightning captive in her teeth

_Just keep walking._

Coda had had plenty of experience of getting in and out of places she wasn't meant to be - hell, it could be argued that she had spent her entire adult life in places the daughter of two decorated Republic military officers was never meant to be. She knew how you did it. You didn't run, you didn't scurry nervously, you trudged along like you were just another poor idiot trying to get through the day. You kept walking, even when you could feel the eyes on your back. 

She hoisted the cloth bag she had filched back in Mezenti Spaceport - shapeless, threadbare, its drabness a perfect cover for what was inside - a little higher on her shoulders, wishing for a cloak, a hood, something. Some kind of clothing equivalent of the bag to camouflage her among the other beaten-down souls who had filed off the freighters and were now dispersing raggedly through the arrivals hall. Unfortunately, she was still wearing the outfit she had fled Nar Shaddaa in. Equally unfortunately, it wasn't exactly designed for blending in. 

Nor were six-foot Togrutas, come to that. 

_Just keep walking._ She sidestepped a spill of luggage, letting her path drift towards a knot of five or six humans; let her get behind them, duck down, break the eyeline ... 

'Hold it!' 

Too late. 

Still, Coda kept moving - she was almost there - 

A heavy tread behind her, and a hand on her shoulder. 'I said, hold it.' 

_Sithspit._ She let the hand on her shoulder pull her round, her mouth falling open in bemusement. 'Me?' 

'Yeah, you.' A Weequay, half a head shorter than Coda but twice as broad across the shoulders, two blasters in his belt, vibroblade strapped across his back. Behind him, two Gamorreans. 'What ship you come in on?' 

'Sorry?' Coda asked with a pretence of blankness, playing for time while the possibilities danced in her mind. To tell the truth or gamble on a lie ... 

'What ship -' a scaly finger stabbed at the sky - 'did you -' the same finger jabbed at her breastbone - 'come here on?' He pointed at the dirty spaceport floor, but they both knew what he meant: The planet, Hutta, her presence on which was already looking like a monumentally bad idea. 

'The _Calaron IV,_ I think it was called,' Coda answered, making up her mind in the blink of an eye. 

'The _Calaron IV,_ huh?' The Weequay rubbed his chin; flakes of scale drifted down on to his chest. 'Gjeilo, get over here.' 

A Rodian clutching a datapad to his skinny chest hurried over, weaving between more new arrivals; there were still plenty of people left from the recent influx, collecting their bags, waiting for their documents to be checked, trying to find travelling companions. 'Yeah, boss?' 

'Our purple friend here says she came in on the _Calaron IV_.' The Weequay gestured to the Rodian. 'See, Gjeilo can go a little overboard with checking people's IDs. He can look at someone like you, clearly a nice honest lady who paid her fare to Hutta like everybody else, strolling through the spaceport and say: Hang on a minute, she didn't check in with the guards upon disembarking like everybody else. She didn't give her name so we could double-check it with the passenger manifest and make sure everybody's who they're supposed to be. And there wasn't a single Togruta listed among the arrivals from the _Eriadu Swift_ or the _Sweet Tanna II_ , so what's she doing walking through Jiguuna Spaceport like she owns the place?' He smiled, or at least bared his teeth. 'But now we know, you came in on the _Calaron IV_ , so Gjeilo here can stop worrying. Unless there's some kind of problem, that is.'

Coda resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course it had to be someone like this. Any half-decent thug with a modicum of professional pride would have got down to business by now and either have her credits or her teeth in his fist, but she had to land someone who wanted to put on a show, draw out the process. That meant someone who wanted to watch her be scared. She could just see him as a tiny, muscular, scaly child, stabbing pins through insects. 

Which had just lowered the odds of her being able to wriggle out of this. 

The Rodian looked up from his datapad. 'She didn't come in on the _Calaron IV,_ boss.' 

The Weequay affected surprise. 'She didn't? And how do you know that, Gjeilo?'

' _Calaron IV_ 's a hauler with a droid crew, boss. Nothing that bleeds on that ship except for the captain and the first mate -'

Coda opened her mouth -

'- who are an obese Devaronian and a human male with more prosthetic parts than original.' The Weequay grinned at her. 'Care to change your story, sweetheart?'

Coda glanced from side to side swiftly, noting that the flood of passengers through the arrivals hall had slowed to a trickle; fewer eyes around to watch what happened to one lone Togruta. Not that Boss here would mind an audience. 'Just so I know, would it have made any difference if I'd said the _Sweet Tanna II_?' 

'Not when the captain of the _Sweet Tanna II_ already tipped us off that he thought he had a stowaway on board.' 

There it was; the stacked deck. 

The Weequay lowered his hand to the blaster at his hip, let it rest there, an ostentatious threat. 'Hands up.' 

Coda obeyed slowly, her mind flicking through options, all of them bad. She had a hold-out blaster tucked in the back of her pants, good for maybe twenty shots, but she'd be lucky to take more than one before the Gamorreans behind her used their shock sticks to stun her. Bad. She had a couple thousand credits, no more, not enough for the passage she'd already taken from Nar Shaddaa to Hutta and certainly not enough for a bribe. Worse. And then there was what was in her bag ... 

'So, the lady thinks she doesn't have to pay her passage.' Boss was speaking loud enough to attract curious stares, and two more Jiguuna enforcers drifted over to swell the circle surrounding Coda. 'Where'd you take ship, stowaway?' 

'Pantora. I'm the king.' Gjeilo tittered; she heard the Gamorreans behind her grunting to each other in their own language. 

'Got ID, your majesty?' 

As a matter of fact, Coda had three IDs sealed in an inside pocket of her vest: All of them carrying different names and numbers, all of them top-of-the-line fakes prepared by one of the best forgers on Nar Shaddaa, and all of them, as of three days ago, as worthless to her as her real documents. 'Must've left them in my other robes.' 

The new arrivals laughed out loud at that, and Coda just had enough time to reflect that maybe it wasn't a good idea to be stealing Boss's spotlight when the Weequay's eyes narrowed and his fist lashed out. Coda had just enough time to turn her head fractionally so that the blow smacked into her cheek rather than knocking out half her teeth, but it still snapped her head back and made montral and lekku ring from tip to tip. 

'Let's try again. What's your name?' 

'Satele Shan. But you can call me Supreme Master.' 

He slapped her this time, on the same cheek where he'd punched her before, hard enough to send her staggering sideways into the enforcers who'd newly joined the group; they pushed her back towards the Weequay, batting her around like a beach inflatable at a picnic. 

'Keep giving me smart answers, snakehead. See where that gets you,' he growled. 

'Planning on it.' Coda probed at her teeth with her tongue; a couple of them were definitely feeling loose. 'Cleared my whole day.' 

'Is that right? Because it seems to me someone stupid enough to stow away on a ship headed for Hutta and try to sneak through Jiguuna Spaceport without even carrying enough credits for a decent bribe is running from something bad enough that they've got no time to waste.' The Weequay scratched his chin again in a parody of thought, adding plentifully to the scaly flakes already dotting his chest. 'And that makes me think that if I searched your name on the HoloNet, I'd find a nice picture of your stripy face with "WANTED" in big flashing letters underneath it, and maybe a number with a lot of zeroes. Am I right, snakehead?' 

This time the blow went to her stomach, folding her in half; she sank unsteadily to one knee, fighting to keep her balance and her grip on her bag. 

'You better hope I'm right, because if I'm wasting all this time on some fare-dodging scumbag who isn't worth anything ... Well, sister, I might just kill you for free.' 

'She's holding on to that bag awful tight, boss,' the human to her right commented. 

'She is at that. Something in there that's going to make all this worth our while?' The Weequay reached for the bag over Coda's shoulder, but she swung it round in front of her and wrapped her arms around it. 'Oh-ho.' Boss drew his blaster, pointed it directly at Coda's face, the barrel just a couple of inches away. A cheap-ass Blastoid model, she noted, not that it would fail to kill her just the same. 'Last chance, bitch. Give up the bag, or I'll splatter the contents of that stripy head all over this spaceport and take it anyway.' 

Down on one knee, looking down the barrel of a blaster, and the only bargaining chip to her name something that she'd be worse than dead without. Coda had never feared ending up in a situation like this, because she'd never believed she would end up in a situation like this. When push came to shove, there was always a way out, always another option. Even now, she couldn't believe she was wrong about that. Let alone dead wrong about it. 

She opened her mouth, confident that by the time she drew breath the words would have arrived to fill it.

Instead there was the sound of a shot, and the blaster in front of her face erupted in a shower of sparks.

_Just keep walking._

As always at a time like this, Indirae heard the words in her brother's voice, even though it had been five years since she had heard Chiba's voice for real. Chiba, her cautious brother, the smallest male and the one Indirae had liked the best of all her littermates; the two of them would walk the streets between home and school or home and the store, and whenever something violent erupted around them and the screams started, Chiba would steer her away, his arm around her shoulders at the first sign of her steps slowing, and his voice in her ear intoning: 'Just keep walking.' 

Obedient to her brother's voice in her head, Indirae's steps didn't falter as she continued past the scene that had caught her eye, even when two more men joined the group, swelling the circle. She caught a glimpse of the quarry in the centre of it, a tall, purple-skinned Togruta at bay in a ring of muscle and blasters, and forced her eyes forward again. 

_Keep walking. Not your business._ She heard laughter, and then the dull sound of a punch. Suddenly the stale, recycled air of the spaceport was alive with a familiar, ugly taste. 

She was not here to get involved in tawdry squabbles. 

Indirae recognised the ringing sound of the slap when it followed. She knew that sound. People made light of slaps, as if there was something childish, almost playful about them. But those people had never been on the receiving end of a real slap. They didn't know the way the shock burned almost worse than the blow itself. 

Her cheek tingled. Without quite realising it, she'd stopped walking. 

'Keep giving me smart answers, snakehead. See where that gets you.' 

Indirae stood rooted to the spot, willing herself to start walking again. She was here to meet Braden, her backer. She was here to join the Great Hunt. She was here to seize her chance ... 

Last time she'd seen Chiba, he hadn't been able to speak. He'd been a limp huddle on the old cot in the corner of the downstairs room. Bandages covered half his face; Indirae hadn't been sorry to be spared the sight of the missing eye. Old Doctor Laun hadn't been sure if the beating had damaged his vocal chords, or if he was just too traumatised to speak. But he'd still taken her hand when she spoke to him, and tried to smile. He still wrote to her every fortnight, although sometimes she didn't get the letters for months; he told her everything that happened back home on Ord Mantell. But he'd never told her what, in the end, was the thing that he hadn't been able to walk away from.

Indirae turned, slowly, on the spot until she was looking back. The Togruta had been driven to her knees now; Indirae caught glimpses of arms, legs, vividly-patterned montrals between the bodies of the surrounding men.

She took two steps to her left; now she had a clear view of the man who seemed to be in charge of the pack of enforcers, a strong-looking Weequay, and of the woman on one knee. The Togruta should have looked pathetic, helpless, down on the ground, arms wrapped around a shabby cloth bag; instead she looked faintly surprised, as if she was being no more than momentarily inconvenienced, and Indirae hesitated, fingers flexing.

Then the Weequay drew his blaster and shoved it in the Togruta's face, and Indirae heard him say: 'Last chance, bitch. Give up the bag, or I'll splatter the contents of that stripy head all over this spaceport and take it anyway.'

Indirae drew.

Coda blinked, not certain what she was seeing. For a split second, she had thought the Weequay had fired. But she was still upright, still breathing, and it was the Weequay who was staring open-mouthed at the blaster which had turned into a red-hot, sparking tangle of metal in his hand, before his reactions caught up with him and he dropped it on the ground, cursing.

His head swivelled, open-mouthed, in the direction Coda was already looking, and he gaped at the woman standing ten feet away.

'Let her go,' the woman said in a deep, soft voice. She was a Cathar, and the tallest one Coda had ever seen; six foot if she was an inch, her height accentuated by the spiky crest of chestnut hair which swept over her brow to end in jagged locks against her cheekbone. Her clothing was patched, her armour scuffed in places, but if it wasn't new, it fitted her like a glove, and the blaster in her hand looked like it belonged there. Coda's eyes took in the second blaster on the woman's hip, the sheathed vibroknife next to it, the wrist launcher and the straps which strongly hinted at a jet pack strapped to the woman's back, and the part of her brain which wasn't still frantically trying to process the surprising fact of her own continued existence thought: _Bounty hunter._

The Weequay goggled at her. 'Who the - what are - what - what the kriff are you doing?'

'That was a warning.' The Cathar's fur was pale tan and burnt umber, vivid markings streaking across her forehead and out towards her cheekbones, but her eyes were a blue that rang clear as a bell and they were fixed on the Weequay. 'You won’t get another.'

The Weequay looked down at the melted remains of his blaster, and Coda could see him arriving at the same conclusion she herself had reached some seconds earlier; that the mystery of how the Cathar had turned it into scrap in his hand without hurting him or anybody else was a lot less important than what she was going to do next.

'Let her go,' the woman said.

'Are you serious?' The Weequay drew his other blaster, and around the circle that still surrounded Coda there was an unsheathing of weapons. 'There's six of us, and one of you.'

The Cathar's other hand came up, and it was filled with a blaster, too. 'Yeah? In a minute there'll only be four of you.'

'Listen, furry, I don't know where you get your delusions, but this is my spaceport and the snakehead here is my catch, so walk away or -'

Coda lunged, throwing herself forward away from the Gamorreans behind her but, much more importantly, shoving her bag as hard as she could into the Weequay's crotch. The surprised noise he made as the hard edge of the rifle case hidden inside the cloth bag connected with his groin was music to her ears.

She heard a rapid trio of blaster shots, _one-two-three_ , but she wasn't done with the Weequay yet. As he doubled over, she straightened up, swinging the bag up to meet his nose. Thanks to his species' armoured faces, it didn't do the damage it would have done to a human but there was still a most satisfying crunch.

As the Weequay reeled backwards, she lunged again, catching him in the chest with her shoulder and bearing them both to the ground. The blaster in his hand skittered away across the floor; smartly, the Weequay didn't grab for it. He grabbed for Coda instead; she bent backwards to keep her throat out of his scrabbling grasp as she fumbled for her hold-out blaster, but he caught a handful of lekku and squeezed.

Coda yelled in pain and outrage. She yanked the tiny blaster out of the back of her pants, jammed it up against his forearm and pulled the trigger.

It was the Weequay's turn to howl as he fell back to the floor, clutching at his arm. Coda shoved the muzzle of her blaster up under his chin, right where the ridge of horny scales ended and the soft underside of his jaw was exposed, and he stilled. 

Part of her - especially her throbbing right lekku - really wanted to pull the trigger.

She punched him instead, hard enough to send his eyes rolling back in his head. 'Think about this next time you call someone _snakehead,_ ' she growled, and punched him again. 

His body went limp.

Someone pushed past her and there was the sound of scurrying feet; Coda twisted, bringing up her blaster, but as she saw the Rodian Gjeilo trying to make a run for it, there was a sharp snap and a sizzle and suddenly Gjeilo was stopped in his tracks, twitching helplessly in a crackling web of sparks and energy. 

Coda twisted further and looked up, and saw what she had expected; the Cathar woman, arm extended, wrist-launcher smoking slightly. 'You OK?' she asked, not looking down at Coda, her eyes sweeping for any more threats.

'A lot better than I was thirty seconds ago.'

'Then let's go.'

Coda scrambled to her feet, swinging her bag back on to her shoulder, and looked around. Only one of the six was still standing, and that was one of the Gamorreans, blinking stupidly around at his fellow prone enforcers. The pair of humans were side by side on the ground, one clutching his thigh, the other his shoulder; the second Gamorrean was huddled limp and unmoving on his side. By the looks of things, whatever trick the Cathar had used on the Weequay's blaster had been considerably more explosive when she hit the Gamorrean's shockstick. That was one way to take down one of his notoriously tough species, fair enough, but to make that shot and take out both humans with the rapidity with which the shots - only three! - had sounded ...

Holy Sith, that was some _shooting._

The Cathar turned, eyes surveying the carnage. 'You'll all live,' she said, raising her voice so that it could be heard, not just by the men on the ground but by the scattered onlookers. 'When he wakes up, you can tell your boss he won't be so lucky next time.' She holstered her remaining blaster, turned on her heel and strode towards the exit.

Coda hastened to catch up with her, still giddy from the sudden turn of events. She fell into step with the Cathar, sneaked a sideways glance at her flattened profile, and felt her spirits, never down for long, rising once more. Just when you thought you were down and out, it turned out you had an ace in the hole after all ...

And what an ace. That shooting!

'Just keep walking,' the woman said in her soft voice, as if she'd sensed Coda's curious glances. As they turned right out of the arrivals hall into the main concourse, word of what had happened seemed to travel alongside them, so that they walked in a bubble of silence ringed by whispers and furtive stares. 'Until we get to the exit.'

'And then what?'

'Then you should start running.'

Coda stiffened. 'Why?'

'Because I don't think that Weequay back there is smart enough not to come looking for you.'

'Oh, him? I'm not worried.'

For the first time the Cathar looked at her, a faint frown wrinkling her striped forehead. 'He nearly killed you five minutes ago.'

'And if he comes after me again, he'll find out just how lucky he got today.'

The frown deepened. 'You're not just a stowaway.'

'And you're not just a bounty hunter. Not just any bounty hunter, I mean. That shooting ... How did you do that to his blaster? How have I never heard of you? Who _are_ you? Why did you do all that?'

'I don't like bullies.'

The mouth of Jiguuna Spaceport yawned before them; beyond it, a wide, dusty road led down to huddling red-stone buildings and, squatting grimly over them, the familiar bulbous shape of a Hutt palace. 

The bright sunlight turned the Cathar's short crop of chestnut hair to flame as she stepped out of the spaceport exit. 'Well, good luck to you.' She nodded slightly at Coda and turned away down the road.

'Wait, wait a minute.' Coda hurried to catch up with her, grabbing the other woman's arm to stop her. '"Good luck"? That's it? That's all you're going to say?'

The Cathar looked pointedly down at Coda's hand on her arm, and waited until the Togruta released her grasp. 'Something else?'

'Yeah, there's something else. How about the answers to every question you've ignored so far, for a start? You come out of nowhere, you shoot like the ghost of Calo kriffing Nord, you get six spaceport security thugs off my back for no reason and now you're just done with me? Uh-uh, no way.' Coda planted her hands on her hips. 'You don't just save my ass and walk away.'

The Cathar blinked at her in bemusement, and then looked away, but not before Coda had caught the corners of her mouth beginning to curve.

'So you can smile,' she said triumphantly.

'I -' The Cathar raised a hand, unnecessarily tucking a lock of hair behind her pointed ear; a surprisingly girlish gesture, and Coda noticed again how very blue her eyes were in that fiery-striped face. 'Indirae. My name's Indirae.'

'Indirae,' Coda repeated, liking the sound of the name in her mouth. She left a space for the Cathar to fill with her family name, but when none seemed to be forthcoming, she added, 'I'm Orcodaa Vadesh. They call me Coda.' She extended her hand. 'Pleasure to meet you, Indirae.'

The Cathar pursed her lips, but grasped Coda's forearm in a warrior's greeting. 'Good to meet you too ... Coda,' she added at Coda's eyebrow raise. 'And now I've got somewhere to be.' She pulled her arm free from Coda's grip, nodded, and strode off down the road towards Jiguuna.

Coda stood where she was, the dust of Hutta settling around her boots, as she watched the tall Cathar walk away. Then she grinned, hoisted her bag up on her shoulder once again, and started to run. 

It did not take long to catch up with Indirae. The Cathar did not acknowledge the Togruta falling into step with her, but after a couple of steps, she cocked an eyebrow.

'Just figured I'd walk with you for a while,' Coda explained breezily, or as breezily as it was possible to sound on this stiflingly hot, dust-choked planet. 'I mean, those people at the spaceport will definitely tell the Weequay which way I went. Couldn't hurt to have him think we're travelling together.'

Indirae made a half-grudging, half-sceptical noise in her throat.

'I mean that he might be more reluctant to come after either one of us if he thinks he's going to have to take on both of us,' Coda elaborated. 'Sure, he didn't strike me as one of the galaxy's great thinkers, but I'm sure he can add one and one together if enough of his lackeys help him.' She cast a surreptitious sideways glance at Indirae's profile; nothing. 'Come to think of it,' she tried, 'it might not be the worst idea if we actually did stick together for a while -'

'No.'

'Just while we're both on Hutta!'

'No,' Indirae repeated flatly. 'I have a job to do.'

'I'll help you with it! It would be the least I could do -'

'I said no.'

They were passing the Hutt's palace on the right now; it was even uglier close up, much like the Gamorrean guards who flanked the entrance. A steady stream of people were coming in and out, and there was the unmistakable noise of a bazaar coming from further down the street. 'Listen, Indirae, you have to understand that you really didn't see me at my best back there. It's been a rough few days. I'm usually a lot more impressive than - Ow!'

They had turned left on to a new street, and almost as soon as they did turn, Indirae had flung out an arm to bar Coda's way. The term was appropriate; it had felt a lot like walking into a bar of durasteel. 

It was not difficult to see why the Cathar had stopped. In the middle of the street, between two ferracrete barricades, were lying three corpses. Although the blaster holes in a couple of them were still smoking, indicating that they had only recently become corpses, they also had the denuded look of bodies which had been very thoroughly stripped of everything of value. Almost everything; Coda noticed that although the bodies were missing such trifles as belts and boots, they had all been left their insignia: Some kind of symbol daubed in yellow on black badges pinned to their chests.

Similar badges, although with a slightly different symbol in red, were being sported by the very much more upright men across the street, who were passing around flasks of something with the air of fuelling up for a long, unpleasant day ahead. There was an air of resignation and routine about the scene, right down to the street cleaners who had arrived and were starting to drag the men one by one to a repulsorlift trolley, which struck Coda sharply. Even on Hutta, you didn't expect people to be quite that sanguine about multiple recently-dead bodies in the street.

'What is happening on this kriffing planet?' she asked.

The question had been under her breath and more intended for herself than anybody else, but Indirae answered as if Coda had spoken it at normal volume. 'Turf war. The local Hutt boss has got a challenger. These streets are basically a war zone. Didn't do a lot of research before deciding to come to Hutta, huh?'

'Let's just say I had to choose my destination in a hurry.'

'So you are running.' _Big, strong, but not dumb,_ Coda noted. 'Got a price on your head?'

'Not as far as I know.' Coda would need to find a secure way to get on the HoloNet before she could check the bounty lists and make sure, but she didn't think she'd find her name on there; posting a bounty wasn't the Eidolon's style. He preferred to do his own housework. She pushed the thought away. 'If I had, would you try to collect?'

'Not me,' Indirae said over her shoulder as they skirted the space in the street formerly occupied by bodies and still splashed with blood. 'I've got bigger grazers to griddle.'

'Insulting, but uplifting. It would put a real dampener on our new partnership if you made a move and I had to kill you.'

'We are not going to be partners - heads up!'

Another gunfight had erupted down the street from them, an exchange of blaster fire between two barricades. Even from this distance, Coda could tell they were wearing the red and yellow badges. 'Oh, for the love of ... Come on, get in here.'

She grabbed Indirae's arm and pulled her into the mouth of a dark, or at least decently shadowy, alley to their left.

'What are you -' Indirae started to protest, and then said 'Oof!' instead, because Coda had just shoved the cloth bag into her chest with a muttered 'Hold that.' Reflexively, she took hold of the bag, feeling the hard edges of something inside it as Coda started to unfasten it. 'What do you have in here?'

'Something I'm not walking the streets of this kriffing city without for one second more.' Letting Indirae's hands take the weight of the bag, Coda yanked the fastener open. Pushing aside the rags the previous owner had left in it, and which she had used to try to cushion and conceal the shape and texture of the one thing she really needed to smuggle off Nar Shaddaa, she extracted the long, thin ferralite case. 'Drop that, and hold this.' She pushed the case towards Indirae, who automatically rested it on her outstretched arms, and reached for the padlock. She clicked the tiny keys in a specific rhythm, waited a second and then pressed her thumb against the biometric sensor on the side.

Coda had just started to worry that the dust and grime of Hutta was already coating her thickly enough to obscure her thumbprint when the padlock sprung apart. Swiftly, she pulled it loose and the case slid smoothly open on its hinges, revealing what was unmistakably a blaster rifle in three separate components (plus scope and long barrel), each part nestling in its own fitted foam hollow.

'Nice rifle,' Indirae said, peeping over the top of the lid.

Coda grinned. 'If you like that, you're going to love this.' She spun the case around so that it still rested on Indirae's arms, but with the open side now facing the Cathar. Which meant she could see what was held in the top half of the case.

The Cathar's mouth fell open. 'Is that ... Are those ... Boddi Hurrikaine Nines?'

'Boddi Hurrikaine 9-5s.' Coda reached over the lip of the case and gently tugged one of the blaster pistols free of its foam bed. Even in the dim alleyway, it had a subtle, disquieting gleam, so fluid in its lines that light seemed to wrap around it rather than bouncing off it. 'Point-five microns narrower in the focusing chamber than the plain Nines, and made with a 48-facet crystal, not a 24.' She pulled a charge pack from the case, guided it into place until she felt rather than heard the soft snick that meant it was seated fully. 'They only made five hundred.'

'I've only ever seen a Hurrikaine Eight. And that was in a museum.' Indirae's eyes were wide as she watched Coda holster the first pistol, and pull the second from the case. 'Do they still have -'

'The original sight? Oh yes. And the phobium tang balanced by Iram Boddi himself.' Coda slid a charge pack into the second, then slid her finger into the trigger loop and flicked her wrist; the 9-5 performed a gleaming somersault. 'And trust me, they live up to the hype.'

Indirae was frowning. 'They're worth more than some planets. And you dodged the fare to Hutta?'

'It would take more than a little temporary financial embarrassment to make me give up these babies. Not after what I went through to get them.' Coda ran a loving thumb along the barrel of her offhand pistol before, reluctantly, holstering it.

The Cathar's eyes were wide; Coda noted that, nose to nose in the narrow alleyway, they were more or less the same height. In fact, montrals notwithstanding, she was actually an inch or so shorter than Indirae. She didn't meet many women - or people full stop - she could say that about. 'I thought I was helping someone - someone who really needed it.'

'You were,' Coda said brightly.

'No, I mean ...' She broke off, staring at Coda as if seeing her anew. 'Who are you?'

'Oh, didn't I say?' Coda put a hand to her chest. 'Orcodaa Vadesh. Bounty hunter.' She grinned at the stunned Cathar. 'I told you I'd be a useful partner.'

That seemed to shock Indirae out of her, well, shock. 'Oh, no.' She took a step backwards, despite the fact that doing so merely pressed her flat against the alley wall. 'You might have some fancy blasters, but that doesn't make us partners.'

Coda rolled her eyes. 'Fine, we're not partners. Can't blame a girl for trying.' She eyed the Cathar, backed up against the wall. 'Can I at least buy you a drink?'

'I have somewhere to be -'

'One drink. For the woman who saved my life.' Coda took half a step closer. 'Please? I'll let you handle my blasters.'

Indirae inhaled in a way which, if she hadn't known better, might have made Coda think she was trying to tunnel into the wall with her shoulderblades. 'I ... Fine.' She extended her arms, shoving the case back towards Coda. 'My meeting's at the Poison Pit. You can buy me one drink there. One.'

Coda wrapped her arms around the case, and smiled up into the Cathar's eyes. 'One drink is all I need.'

The Poison Pit wasn't like the cantinas on Nar Shaddaa, which were there exclusively for indulging in vices and pleasures and made no secret of that fact. It seemed to function as much as a makeshift office, informal town hall and hiring market as much as a cantina, and Coda and Indirae had to take a couple of turns before they even found a bar. It didn't seem to surprise the Cathar at all, Coda noted; another indication that Indirae was a lot more familiar with backwater planets than she was.

The room they had found was relatively quiet, and in addition to being deep, the booths had ragged curtains which could be drawn across for additional privacy; this was Hutta, after all.

Coda leaned an elbow on the bar, which was, naturally, unpleasantly sticky, and smiled at Indirae. 'What's your pleasure?'

The Cathar had turned her back to the bar and was surveying the room, eyes flicking from patron to patron, corner to corner. 'You don't have credits for your passage but you've got them to spend in a cantina?'

Coda sighed. 'Well, I wasn't planning on buying you a spacecraft's worth of drinks.' She waved to attract the attention of the server. 'Come on, what can I get you?'

'Water.'

'Water?' Coda repeated incredulously. 'I'll get you anything, come on.'

'Water.'

Coda turned to the server. 'We'll have two Agaanu Aces.'

Indirae crossed her arms and waited.

'And a water,' Coda added, rolling her eyes.

'Take a seat, I'll bring them over.'

'Thanks.' Coda flicked him a credit chit and turned away from the bar. 'I can't believe I just did that. This is not how the big-timers celebrate escaping death.'

'If it makes you feel better, clean water's probably the most expensive thing on the menu.'

'Fair point.' Indirae was heading for the corner booth - back against the wall and with the best view of the room, exactly what Coda would have expected her to choose - but Coda nudged her and nodded towards the booth in the opposite corner; half-tucked behind the bar, next to the door to the kitchens.

The Cathar followed reluctantly, wrinkling her nose. 'Nice spot.'

'Perfectly positioned for a quick exit through the kitchens if someone comes through that door,' Coda countered, sliding into the booth and nodding towards the main entrance to the room. 'And if I'm going to let you get your hands on my guns, I'm not doing it where just anybody can see.'

Indirae gave her an appraising sort of look. 'So you do have some sense.'

'Yeah, but don't let it get around.' Coda rested her elbows on the table and grinned across it at her companion. 'So. Indirae. Indirae no-last-name. Do your friends call you Indy?'

'I don't have any friends.'

Coda winced. 'I realise you probably meant that to be a tough line, but it just sounds kind of sad.'

'I don't care about sounding tough.'

'Then you should. Hasn't anyone told you bounty hunting is seventy per cent public relations?'

'Not the way I do it.'

'Now that was a tough line,' Coda said approvingly. 'See? Stick with me and you'll make a name for yourself in this business after all.'

The Cathar's eyes narrowed and she leaned forward, gripping the edge of the table with both hands. 'I don't need your help to make a name for myself,' she hissed - and it was a hiss, harsh enough to make Coda's skin crawl with apprehension.

Or something else. But this definitely wasn't the time to bring that up. 'OK, OK, I'm sorry, I was just kidding.' She held her hands up in apology as Indirae slowly released the table and sat back. 'I still think you need a tougher name, though. I mean, Indy -'

'Indirae -'

'- is cute enough but it isn't exactly going to strike fear into anyone's hearts, is it? If you had a last name, we could work with that, but as it is, I think we're going to have to go with a nickname.' Coda rested her chin on her hand as the bartender brought over their drinks. 'The Crimson Cathar? Indirae the Impregnable?'

Indirae pushed the brightly-coloured drink the bartender placed in front of her over the table to Coda. 'I don't need a nickname.'

'The Claws in the Dark? Wait, I've got it - the Furry Menace!'

Indirae had just taken a sip of her water; she spluttered and glared as a distinct snort of suppressed laughter came from the bartender. 'I - don't you dare call me that!'

'But look at the reactions it's getting,' Coda said innocently, flipping another credit chit towards the server, who hurried off, shoulders shaking. 'You've got to admit it's memorable.'

'Look, my family name is Jexqzk, all right? J-e-x-q-z-k. I just don't use it because people who aren't Cathar have trouble pronouncing it.'

'Jexx. Jekk. Jezk.' Coda pulled a face. 'I can see why.'

'But even if nobody can say it, it's still better than the Furry Menace, so don't ever call me that again. Or I'll drag you back to spaceport security myself.'

'All right, all right. Calm down.' Coda sipped her drink, and grimaced; she should clearly add 'a decent cocktail' to the list of things apparently unavailable on this toxic dustball. 'Hasn't anybody given you a nickname before?'

'They have. And none of them were nice.' Indirae leaned forward, gripping the edge of the table again; Coda had the distinct feeling that if she had been able to see the tips of the Cathar's fingers properly, there would have been claws peeking out. 'And if all you want to do is make fun of me -'

'It's not, I'm sorry, I was just teasing you,' Coda said placatingly. 'I grew up with a twin sister. It's kind of an ingrained reflex by now.'

'Yeah, well, I grew up with seven littermates,' Indirae muttered.

'And you really don't like bullies, do you?' Coda eyed her curiously. 'Although I have to say, I find it hard to imagine anybody bullying you.'

'I wasn't always big.' Indirae looked away. 'I should be going.'

'Don't go yet,' Coda said quickly. Overly touchy the Cathar may be, but she had also turned around Coda's fortunes once today, and unless she, Coda, was much mistaken, Indirae had the potential to do so permanently. 'You've barely touched your water. And I promised you a good look at my guns.'

Indirae looked back at her. 'You promised I could handle them.'

Coda suppressed a sigh. She absolutely hated anybody else touching her blasters, but if that was what it took ... 'I did. Just draw the curtain, OK? I don't need everybody in this cantina getting a good look right now.'

Indirae leaned forward and stretched out a long arm to yank the shabby curtain across the front of the booth, screening them from view. 'Anybody on this planet who gets half a look is going to recognise Hurrikaine 9-5s. Anybody on any planet.'

Coda grinned wickedly. 'I know.'

Indirae shook her head slowly. 'Arrogance will get you killed.'

'It's only arrogance if you don't have the skills to back it up,' Coda countered.

'And you do?'

'Let me work with you for a while and you'll find out.'

'Nice try.' Indirae lent over the table, eyes wide as Coda unholstered her blasters and laid them down. She reached out, and hesitated. 'Can I?'

Coda suppressed a wince and gestured grandly. 'Be my guest.'

The Cathar didn't need telling twice. 'Kriff, they're so light,' she marvelled, weighing the blasters in her hands.

'It's the mix in the alloy.' Coda sipped her drink. 

Indirae held the blasters up to admire them in the best light. 'I heard Iram Boddi never revealed his formula.'

'No, his heirs still have it. It's just that it takes elbonium ore and that's almost impossible to find now. They say Boddi had a secret source somewhere in Wild Space but nobody knows where.'

Coda watched as Indirae examined the blasters from every angle, and sipped her drink to cover her discomfort. She had always been reluctant to let anybody else so much as get a close look at her beloved Hurrikaine 9-5s, and even now there was definitely a part of her which wanted to lean forward and snatch them from the Cathar's grasp. But there was also something about watching those long, strong, silken-furred fingers wrap around her guns, seeing Indirae's blue eyes narrow to sight down the length of the barrel and knowing how the rest of the world fell away when you did that ...

'Coda?'

'Huh?' She sat up straighter in the booth, blinking. 'What was that?'

'I asked if the triggers ever stick. It's the same mechanism as the whole Blastoid 200 line, and they get gummed up real easy -'

'Not these babies. Seventy years old, and almost no metal fatigue. Of course, I treat them with Indonada oil and a Whita cloth.'

'Of course,' Indirae said with a dryness in her tone which Coda didn't quite understand. Reluctantly, she handed the Hurrikaines back to Coda one by one. 'They're beauties, all right. I wish I could try shooting with them.'

'I think even on Hutta that would get us kicked out. Or at least cut off.' Coda reholstered her blasters.

'You'll have to tell me how you got hold of those.'

'One day.' Coda smiled across the table. 'Over something stronger than water. And now?'

'Now?'

Coda stretched out her hands. 'I showed you mine, you show me yours.'

Indirae's lips pursed and for a minute Coda thought she was going to flatly refuse. But she slowly drew her blasters, first right, then left, and laid them carefully down on the table. After the gleaming Hurrikaine 9-5s, they looked dented and cheap.

Coda wasn't fooled, though; they may not be shiny and new, but just like Indirae's armour, they had clearly been cared for and customised for a long period of time, until they fitted perfectly. She ran her fingers over the larger pistol. 'An InterroTek 79, right? But with an expanded charge pack, a circle scope and a lengthened barrel?' She picked it up and grimaced approvingly. 'Oof, that's a pistol and a half.'

'I don't mind the weight.'

'I bet you don't at that.' Coda hefted the blaster; the grip felt unusually textured. 'Is this synthleather?'

'The real thing. Razoronn. Moulds better to the hands.'

Coda ran her thumb over the ridged leather of the grip; no wonder it fit into Indirae's hand like it had been made for her. 'Did you wire in a secondary resistor here? That must need a lot of adjusting.'

'It's worth it,' Indirae shrugged.

Coda had a sudden vision of the Cathar bent patiently over her pistol, micro-tools in hand, tightening wires, adjusting the fit, night after night. She didn't know why, but it made her sad. She put down the blaster and the uncomfortable feeling with it, and picked up the smaller, off-hand blaster. 'Now this is something that ought to be in a museum. A Blastoid Warder 6? These were obsolete six months before they brought them out.' The Blastoid Warder was a cheap model, not worth retooling in Coda's opinion, but this one showed the same care and attention as Indirae's other blaster. The grip had been rewrapped, but the leather was old enough to have been repaired in several places, the kind of repairs which, although carefully done, would certainly rub; Coda wouldn't have thought this piece of druk was worth the extra callouses.

She turned the pistol in her hands, and frowned. 'What's this?' She examined the mod wired in to the top of the stock. 'Looks like ... a focusing emitter? No - some sort of an intensity modulator.' Enlightenment suddenly dawned. 'So that's how you did it. Dampened the beam so it wouldn't pass through the blaster.' She remembered the blaster crumpling and sparking in the Weequay's hand. 'You'd have to hit close enough to the charge connector, though. You'd have to be very sure of your aim.'

Indirae shrugged. 'My dad used to say anyone who wasn't sure of their aim shouldn't be carrying a blaster.'

Coda rolled her eyes. 'My mother used to say the same thing.' She hefted the pistol and sighted down the barrel. 'Wrecks the alignment, though. I bet it throws left like anything.'

'I compensate.'

'I guess you do.' Coda remembered the rapidity of the shots back in the spaceport. From where she was standing, Indirae would have had to cross arms to hit the Gamorrean's shock stick with her off-hand blaster, and that would in turn have made the angle on the two humans tricky at best, but she had still only fired three shots in the space of two seconds, if that. 'Who _are_ you, Indirae? Anybody who can shoot like you do, they should be telling tales about you in cantinas from Corellia to Vaiken Spacedock. How come I've never heard of you?'

'You have. You just don't know that you have.'

Coda blinked. 'What?'

Indirae sighed. 'Forget it.' She held out her hand. 'Give it back.'

Coda reluctantly handed over the Blastoid Warder. 'Will you at least tell me what you're doing on Hutta?'

Indirae looked at her for a long moment, her expression unfathomable. Then she shrugged and said: 'I'm here to join the Great Hunt.'

Coda bolted upright. 'The Great Hunt? Are you serious?' She held up a hand as Indirae drew breath. 'Wait, what am I saying - you're always serious. But the Great Hunt ...' She had heard the Hunt had been called, and had even entertained a few daydreams about winning, but even she - and Coda knew that not even her harshest critics would say she lacked confidence - wouldn’t seriously contemplate trying to enter, not at her age and with her level of experience. She whistled under her breath. 'You aim high, I'll give you that.'

'It wasn't exactly my idea.'

'Someone else's? A sponsor? You’re no Mandalorian, so if you're going to join the Great Hunt, you must have a sponsor.'

The Cathar hesitated briefly. 'I have ... a backer. Someone I met on Venakki.'

'And that's who you're here to meet.' Coda clapped her hands together and rubbed them vigorously. 'Well, this is perfect.'

'It is?'

'Absolutely! I was wondering how I was going to repay you for saving my ass in the spaceport and now I know. I'm going to help you get into the Great Hunt.'

'Oh, no. You're not.'

'I am! Listen. Whoever your backer is, they're going to need you to make waves on Hutta or at least in Hutt space, that's why they got you to come here. Well, while you're making a splash, I can be watching your back. It's the least I can do after what you did for me. Well, actually the least I can do was buy you a drink, but I'll do you one better and come along for the ride. It's perfect! It's practically destiny.'

'I don't need a partner.'

'Maybe not, but you need a team. Nobody gets into the Great Hunt without a team.' And watching Indirae's back seemed a lot more appealing than holing up somewhere on this foul-smelling planet and waiting for the Eidolon to find her. 'I'll be part of your team! Your best bud. Your right hand. I won't even ask for a cut of the profits. Well, not a big one.'

'I said, no.'

Coda leaned forward pleadingly. 'Listen, I keep telling you, you really haven't seen me at my best so far. But I promise, I can be useful to you. More than useful. Take me with you and you'll see -'

' _No._ '

Coda sighed, and slumped backwards. The Cathar had dropped the word like an armoured tank, and there would be no use arguing any further. 'Fine, I guess.' She brooded for a second, then straightened up, tossing her lekku. 'Well ... you can't blame a girl for trying.'

She looked in vain for a hint of regret in Indirae's slight smile as the Cathar got up from the table. 'I'd better go.'

'Oh, yeah. Lots to do.' Coda flapped a hand vaguely in the direction of the rest of the planet. 'Backers to meet, bounties to hunt, Great Hunts to win, I get it. Don't worry about me. I'll be just fine. Better than fine, in fact. Yep, it's onwards and upwards for Coda, don't you worry.'

Indirae pulled back the curtain to step out of the booth, then hesitated. She turned back, and extended a hand across the table. 'Good luck to you, Orcodaa Vadesh.'

Coda grasped her wrist, and looked up into the Cathar's eyes. 'Luck to you -' she smiled wickedly, unable to resist the temptation - 'Indy.'

**Author's Note:**

> Coda is the brainchild of @verbose-vespertine; Indy belongs to me. Everything else belongs to Disney or George Lucas or Bioware or whoever.
> 
> A thousand thanks to Vespertine for letting me play with Coda and smush her together with Indy.
> 
> Title comes from 'Winnie' by Neko Case.
> 
> Any comments, feedback, criticism is absolutely welcome (but consensual blaster-fondling is extremely sexy, I don't make the rules).


End file.
